Top 5 Extensions to Effectively Manage Chrome Tabs and Memory

One of Chrome’s many strengths is its capability to sync all your bookmarks and Chrome extensions with a Google account. It also opens tabs in separate memory process so that you won’t have to shut it down entirely if one tab crashes. But the fact that it separates memory processes means it uses a lot of memory when you open many tabs. This can cause performance hiccups for users who don’t have enough RAM on their computers.

To solve that problem, here are some tools to help you manage tabs and release memory for use on Chrome. If you frequently surf the Web and open a lot of content in multiple tabs, these Chrome extensions will be great in giving you a smoother Web surfing experience without slowing down your computer too much, ultimately allowing you to multitask with other programs.

If you often surf the Web using lots of tabs and browser windows, this Chrome extension works by compressing all the opened tabs in that particular window in a single tab, so you can see the content of all opened tabs. Doing so will also free memory from Chrome. You can then choose to close tabs, open them one at a time or restore them all. You can also group these tabs into a special category, allowing you to open it at a later time.

As the name aptly suggests, this Chrome extension helps suspend tabs to free up some of Chrome’s memory. Clicking on The Great Suspender button lets you choose from suspending the current tab, suspending all other tabs or restoring all your tabs. This tool allows for automatic and manual suspending which can you can configure in the settings. The settings also allow you to set a whitelist of websites that won’t get suspended.

Tab Hibernation is a one-button tool that instantly puts all other tabs except the one you’re currently viewing into hibernation. Once installed, a crescent-shaped button will appear at the end of your address bar. Clicking on it will hibernate all your other tabs, freeing up Chrome’s memory for a smoother Web surfing experience. To wake up a hibernated tab, just click anywhere.

If you don’t have time to manually manage the tons of tabs opened on your Chrome browser, try using TabMemFree. This tool automatically helps you “park” inactive tabs. Parking a tab frees up the memory of that particular tab. It does this automatically if you have not accessed that particular tab for more than 15 minutes, but you can set a longer tab timeout period, too. When you go back to that particular tab, it will automatically reload, letting you return to where you left off.

TooManyTabs is a great tab and memory manager with a user-friendly and easy-to-understand interface. Once installed, you will see a popup window where you can get a glimpse of all the opened tabs in that particular Chrome window. You can then choose to suspend tabs that you want to keep for future reference, freeing up some memory from Chrome so it runs faster and smoother.